Twisting machines, and more particularly bow twisting machines, are commonly employed to manufacture twisted wire or cables such as standard telephone twisted-pair wire. These machines wrap at least one wire around a core made up of one or more cables or conductors. Typical construction and operation of such machines use one or more bows. A bow is a part of the machine that guides the wire along the length of the bow as the bow rotates around the central portion of the bow-twisting machine. This rotation wraps the initially straight wire into a bunched configuration.
Bows for use on twisting machines are well known in the art. Prior art bows for bow-twisting machines (commonly referred to as “flyer bows”) are typically flat and have wire guides and/or wear strips, mounted on their inner surface. The wire guides position the wire to be twisted by the bow-twister machine and the wear strips serve to protect the bow from damage due to contact between the wire/cable and the bow during operation of the bow-twister machine. The bow is periodically removed from the bow-twister machine to replace worn or damaged parts or components. Numerous problems exist, however, with the mounting of components on prior bows.
One prior technique of mounting these components on bows is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,763 (“the '763 patent”). The '763 patent mounts components to the bow using connectors such as bolts or rivets. Another prior technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,661 (“the '661 patent”). The '661 patent employs a clamping system that involves splitting the components into two pieces. The pieces are assembled around the bow's cross-section and reattached to each other through the use of bolts, rivets or other suitable connection means.
A disadvantage of such apparatus is that numerous fasteners such as nuts, bolts or rivets are required to attach the components to the bow. This makes replacement of the components cumbersome and labor-intensive, as each bolt or rivet must be removed in order to remove the worn or damaged component from the bow. Another disadvantage is that, for the clamping system components, each side of the clamp must be separated by removing individual bolts and/or rivets, which makes replacing components labor and time intensive.
Another disadvantage of using such prior techniques is that fasteners occasionally break or come loose, resulting in an unsafe and dangerous situation. If the fasteners fail, or worse if multiple fasteners fail simultaneously, the fasteners and larger parts of the rotating machinery are thrown from the machinery at dangerous velocities. Another disadvantage is that the fasteners add weight to the bow assembly requiring greater horsepower to operate. Further, the fasteners may create wind resistance as the bow spins creating draw and increasing the horsepower needed to operate.
Thus, what is needed is an apparatus that attaches guides and wear strips to the bows with fewer fasteners. This reduces the labor and time involved in replacing these components when they need replacement, reduces the danger inherent with their breakage and increases the efficiency of the bow moving through the air.